3DEXPERIENCE Reviews

Summary: Once the users (as well as management) got their heads around 'electronic data management' and how it differs from old school "paper world" management, development and implementation was par for the course.

Positive: Company wide (multi country, multilocation) solution for all of the backbone tasks from inception through end of life of intellectual data.

I started using this product for 20 years, when the product was owned by MatrixOne (eMatrix)


Security:

I've used the product on government (EAR/ITAR) and commercial (ISO) projects

Workflows:

Successfully simple to very complex workflows for projects, Native CAD Files, Office and other documents.

Authoring Tools:

Successfully integrated MS Office, MS File Explorer, Outlook, as well as PTC Creo, SolidWorks, And AutoCAD using OOTB seamless integrations for each.

Team Collaboration

Used team collaboration for internal project teams, as well as multi company team project collaboration with external controlled access for teammates.

Electronic Approvals

Setup complex approval matrix, using route templates that allows per person, per project approvals, with backups.

Project Management

1. Integrated Planning & Scheduling

Create and optimize project schedules with Gantt charts, milestones, and dependencies.

Automatically adjust schedules to meet resource constraints and project constraints EXBuild.

Break projects into manageable tasks and track deliverables in real time.

2. Task & Workflow Management

Assign, track, and manage tasks and subtasks with clear ownership and deadlines.

Automate workflows to streamline approvals, handoffs, and process control SolidXperts.

Use embedded comments for traceable communication within tasks.

3. Real-Time Monitoring & Notifications

View color-coded charts to identify critical and overdue tasks.

Receive real-time notifications when milestones or deliverables are missed EXBuild.

Monitor progress with summary charts and activity streams.

4. Collaboration & Communication

Work in a secure, flexible environment with cloud-based dashboards, messaging, and activity streams.

Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders through shared spaces and communities EXBuild.

Use 3DDrive for secure file storage and sharing, and 3DSpace for collaborative workspaces.

5. Access Control & Security

Flexible access rights management so project owners can control who can view or edit tasks and content.

Protect CAD data and documents with role-based permissions EXBuild.

6. Content Management

Store, manage, and share related project content at both project and task levels.

Integrate with design data (e.g., SOLIDWORKS) for seamless planning and execution

Negative: The issues encountered were not software related, but mentality change, and assumptions versus reality. I've help take companies from a paper world where paper was king, with signed off hardcopies that were locked in file cabinets to electronic data as master. That was a huge paradigm shift. Along with that mental change, users had to understand that certain "paper world" processes, while cost effective in the paper world, doesn't necessarily create the same cost effective results in an electronic environment. Meaning simply creating electronic processes that exactly mimics the existing paper world processes is not the answer. You end up with unnecessarily complex processes that aren't efficient. The other difficulty was grasping that paper world flexibility doesn't work in an electronic system where you're not just saving data but also creating a structured database where data can be searched. This aspect requires ridged process execution.